Sole Survivor
by Shun Ren Dan
Summary: Son Goku's friends were all dead. Before he could even get there, they'd been struck down by a mad beast, crazed with power beyond measure. The only path left? Vengeance on the one who'd taken them.


The seas of Namek lay dead, stilled into beds of endless soil that spread forever in every direction. Still, Son Goku laid his son and best friend in deep graves overlooking the sea, that they might at least see it in the afterlife. He knew that, realistically, they were probably watching over him now instead, caught up in an entirely different kind of longing. He wondered if they'd called out for him in their last moments, aware that he wouldn't arrive for another week.

He pivoted and took one last look at the mounds that were their graves; he'd taken care to bury them on what little grass he could find, but he doubted there'd been much use in it.

With Piccolo and all of the other Namekians dead, there was little he could do to help them. The remains of seven large, cracked dragon balls lingered somewhere behind him, ruined in the same calamity that claimed Namek. He took in a deep breath through his rebreather and crossed his arms, turning away from the graveyard he'd created. Even the air on Namek was growing stale, a sign that the planet itself didn't have much time left.

The sky was dark, and the glow of the stars was blacked by thick stormclouds that covered the entire planet. Strokes of lightning descended from the heavens to display Namek's outrage, striking the ground and marking the already charred soil. Trees, reduced to strings of bark, littered the landscape and were surrounded by rakefuls of blue leaves that must've once decorated their branches. Patches of azure grass were visible in the distance, but they were few and far between.

Goku took a step toward the ship that cast its shadow over him, visible even through the roving patches of smog that covered the planet's surface. It was the ship he'd come in on, emblazoned with the Capsule Corporation logo — one that made him feel immense shame. If he could've only beaten Vegeta on his own, he wouldn't have needed to rest before coming to Namek. If he could've just gotten there faster…

A surge of distant power tore him from his doubt.

It was Namekian, for sure. It felt exactly like Piccolo's, but Piccolo was dead…

"Is that… a Namekian?"

He took off through the air without daring to take a breath, flying until he touched down at the lip of a particularly massive sink hole. It descended into the depths of Namek's crust and smelled of sulfur; down in the dark, he could see a gently glowing aura, the markers of the power he'd felt a moment ago. He dove into the hole without reservation and fell deep.

He came to a quick stop inches from the source of the aura, a lone, green hand, blazing and clenched into a fist. The rest of the body was buried deep within the ashen soil, which told the story of Namek's brutal end. Intermingled with the brown dirt was ash and dust, remains of the grass up above; whatever force destroyed Namek had done so from above the point he was standing. Goku risked a glance upward, to the lip of the hole and braced a foot up beside the hand.

Gripping tight, he pulled the Namekian's body free and held him up over the sinkhole. He looked a lot like Piccolo, which was to be expected, but did little to ease Goku's worries.

"Hey, buddy, are you okay?"

His heart practically leapt when the green fella groaned in response. He carried the Namekian, bridal style, back to the ship and placed him down on the tile while he fished a senzu bean out of his belt. Moments later, the green man was stirring and his wounds healing, leaving Goku thankful for having brought extra senzu beans.

"Hey there," he said, kneeling beside his new, living friend. "Are you okay? You were pretty banged up!"

The Namekian coughed up at least half a pound of dirt onto the ship's floor and pounded his fist against the tile. New scars littered his body from head to toe, grim reminders of the trial he'd faced and the failure he would bear from then on.

"Frieza," he grunted, dislodging yet more dirt. "He blew the planet when he realized he'd lost."

"Yeah," Goku said, voice full of concern. "I heard about that. How did you survive?"

"It doesn't matter — where is he?"

"Gone. He must've left days ago."

A silence filled the room and the Namekian rolled over onto his back. His wounds were healed. His pride, his grief, was not.

"My name is Nail," he said. "The last of my people."

"Well, I'm Goku," Goku replied, extending a hand to help Nail up. "And you're the last for now, but we might be able to fix that. Can you make dragon balls?"

"No. I'm… that's not something I can do."

Goku took a second and rubbed at his chin. He'd taken the rebreather off seconds after entering the ship and sealing its doors.

The situation hadn't changed much. Still no dragon balls, still no way to resurrect his friends.

"King Kai," he said, glancing toward the heavens. "Are you there?"

"Yes, Goku," the old Kaio replied.

Nail risked a look toward the ceiling and then back toward Goku, thoroughly confused.

"Ahem, Nail," King Kai said, amending his mistake. He hadn't expected a survivor to pop up. Nail truly was a resilient fellow, albeit an unlucky one. "I'm here. I can't think of any way to save your friends. I'm afraid all you can do is go back to Earth."

Nail turned to the window and watched the storms rage over Namek, his mind on his now dead brothers. He knew what they would want and he wanted to respect their wishes, but was that something he could live with? Sole survivor or not, he was still a warrior. He had pride.

"The Grand Elder would want me to forget about all of this. He'd tell me to go, find a new home, do something to perpetuate our people… but I can't do that. Not anymore. Not after seeing what that _monster_ can do."

"Nail, that's—"

"King Kai, he's right," Goku interjected.

"The demon that did this has to pay, King Kai. Even if you don't think I can beat him, I've gotta try. He's already killed my friends here. Thanks to his men, all of my friends back on Earth are gone too. I can't just sit around and let him keep doing these things. Not if I can stop it!"

"Goku, you'll both die! Frieza isn't a person you can just beat into submission, like Vegeta or the Saiyans. He's an unstoppable force of nature! If you go after him, even with both of you together, you'll lose!"

"Win or lose," Goku said, his eyes narrowed and fists clenched, "I've got to try. Everybody I know is dead. I'd only be joining them if I failed here. Even worse, if I don't stop Frieza now, he might end up coming to Earth later anyway. How many people do I have to let die before I can step in then, King Kai?"

Goku waited for his answer until his knuckles turned white. Lancets of lightning circled his wrists as the energy inside of him ached to be free, desperate for some form of release. He could feel the rage inside of him boiling over, waiting to be pointed in a useful direction. King Kai couldn't deny him something like that. Whether he forbade Goku from seeking vengeance or not, he didn't have much choice, in the end. If he said no, Goku would find another way.

He usually did.

"Fine," King Kai spat, cursing Goku's existence.

"I'll tell you how to get there… but Goku, you have to understand. This isn't going to end well. Quests like this never do. If you go down this path of rage, you might never come back."

"I have to do this, King Kai."

"I know."

* * *

Nail turned out to be a lot stronger than Goku expected. He was easily ten times stronger than Piccolo, which said a lot about the demon that destroyed Namek. If somebody like Nail could be beaten so easily, then Frieza clearly wasn't anybody to laugh at. Still, Goku was a lot stronger than Nail was too. He could beat the Namekian without much trouble, and a simple Kaio-ken put him miles above what Nail was capable of.

The discouraging part was Nail's insistence that, for Goku to match the power he'd felt on Namek, he'd have to maintain over a five times Kaio-ken. Something like that was dangerous for a lot of reasons, but the most glaringly obvious was that it would destroy his body. Powering up to that level would be ludicrous, at least if he intended to keep it up for longer than a few minutes. Still, he'd been training his mastery over the technique since leaving Earth. His battle against Vegeta taught him more lessons than how to take a beating, after all.

"I could teach you to do it too," Goku said one day, taking advantage of the lull in between their training sessions to make small talk while he stuffed his face with rice. "Ifs nah haw."

"Learning that technique won't do me any good," Nail muttered, leaning up against the ship's center console. "You're already two times stronger than I am. If you can't beat him, I won't be able to do much. I'm only coming along to see this through."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not leaving you alone out there. If he has as many soldiers with him as he did on Namek, you're going to need a little help just getting to him."

"I guess that makes sense," Goku frowned.

"Still, it'd be good if you could learn it too. That way, if we got into hot water, you could hit a little harder, y'know?"

"No, Goku. That technique— it's not my power. Frieza killed your friends. Not your entire species. It would be disrespectful of me to fight him with anything that isn't a part of their strength."

Goku let the matter rest after that. He couldn't force Nail to learn something he didn't want to learn. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that Piccolo would've wanted to learn it. Piccolo wasn't like Nail, though. They were both good guys at heart, but Piccolo was ambitious, too. It was the ambition in him that made Goku think he could be redeemed, and it was because of that faith in him that he was dead.

The doubt festering in him was hard to ignore.

It bit at him during meditation, slowed his strikes during his training, and refused to let him sleep. He hadn't felt so much trouble falling asleep since he'd been a kid, the night he woke up to find his Grandpa missing.

There was something else gnawing at him, though. The vague awareness that, despite the danger of the situation, he couldn't help but to be excited. When he left Earth, he couldn't imagine anyone ever being stronger than Vegeta. Now, on the cusp of running into an even stronger foe, and the grief he still felt, he couldn't stop smiling.

Chi-Chi always said that it was the thrill of the chase. Goku was a fighter at heart, and there weren't many ways for him to test himself without going out and doing some fighting. Sparring with Nail did little to scratch the itch in his heart; he needed something more thorough, more unconquerable than the Namekian could offer him.

He needed Frieza, win or lose.

* * *

It took two weeks to reach Frieza #1.

According to King Kai, Frieza went there after destroying Namek. If he was anywhere in the universe, it'd be there. As the capital city of the Planetary Trade's empire, it served as a reminder to many of the benefits of living under Frieza's rule. To most, it was the bloated seat of power for a tyrant that nobody could topple. To Goku, it was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.

The view of Namek from orbit was disappointing. Charred and browned from Frieza's visit, it offered little for his eyes to see. Frieza's capital, on the other hand, was vibrant and teeming with life. A number of space stations circled the planet, and its surface, visible through the clouds, was flush with emerald green and ocean blue.

"It looks a lot like Earth," Goku decided, staring at it through the ship's main viewport. His fingers shook as they tightened his belt, and the hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. He couldn't sense much, from orbit at least, but he was certain they'd find their vengeance there. Something about the place felt foreboding. Maybe it was the burden on his shoulders, finally turning into fear. Maybe it was the ship's entry alarm, ringing like klaxons in his ears.

"It looks nothing like Namek," Nail replied, his voice almost inaudible.

The ship rumbled as it made headway through the atmosphere, on target for a large port in Frieza #1's tangerine colored sky.

* * *

Kurak was having an awful day.

His wife left him a note earlier in the morning, explaining that she'd left him. After that, he'd gone in to work, only to find out that he'd forgotten to fill out at least a dozen TFS reports before going home the day before. On his way to retrieve them, Lord Cui had shoved him in the hallway, like a huge asshole.

More immediate was the strange ship with a large "C" on it landing in bay eight, which was reserved for the Ginyu Force and members of Cooler's Armored Squadron. At the moment, all of the Ginyu Force's pods were docked there, but the individual members were scattered across the planet, tending to… whatever it was they used their free time for. Cooler's men weren't even on the planet.

"Hello," Kurak spoke, leaning into the microphone. A number of glowing screens hovered in the air before him, showing a blueprint of the foreign ship and slowly rising power readings of the occupants inside. "Yes, this is Frieza #1. We request that you identify yourselves immediately, or we will be forced to attack."

The feathers atop his scaled head ruffled a little when the ship failed to respond. Absentmindedly, he pulled up the form for a hostile arrival, and began filling it out with the tip of his left claw.

"I repeat, if you do not identify yourself immediately, we will be forced to attack. Your belongings will be forfeited upon landing, and your lives will be endangered."

Opening the doors to the landing bay, Kurak sent a request for the proper troops to be dispatched. They would be receiving pings in their scouters in the next few seconds, so that they could catch the ship when it landed, and escort the poor souls inside to a nearby holding facility. Lord Frieza was not fond of strangers poking their heads into his empire, though he was particularly fond of enslaving them. With any luck, Kurak would be credited with their apprehension.

"What've you got going on there, Kurak?"

A purple alien with a bulbous, yellow spotted head turned around to examine Kurak's monitors a little more closely. His eyes widened when he picked up the disturbance.

"You already sent some security troopers out to catch those guys, right?"

"I'm not stupid, Appule. Get off my back."

"I'm not on your back, scale face. Did you notify the Ginyu Force too, just in case?"

"I'm not notifying— if I tell them we've got intruders, they'd better be some damn strong intruders."

Appule glanced back at the monitors.

"Well, one of 'em has a power level of forty-thousand. That's pretty strong, even if the other one's sitting at five and a half."

"Forty thousand? What?"

Kurak turned back to the monitor.

"Oh, shit," he breathed.

* * *

The ship's hatch descended with a soft _hiss_.

Goku and Nail stepped out onto Frieza #1 seconds later, their eyes immediately flickering to the two or three dozen soldiers that were lined up outside of the ship. Soldiers rested atop nearby buildings and behind what must've been cars, blasters leveled in their direction. Steam rose from the cracks their impact left in the stonework of the landing bay and hung in the air, obscuring the ship's feet from view.

Goku could make out the faint glow of scouters decorating the eye of almost every soldier and knew that he was being evaluated. Eager to impress, he slowly let bits and pieces of his true power slip free and take form around his wrists. Gouts of blue flame crackled over his knuckles and fists, sending at least half of the scouters before him into a beeping frenzy while they struggled to measure his adjusted power level. Bulma would've loved to figure out how they worked.

"Surrender now," ordered a particularly brave lizard man, decked out in the Planetary Trade's armor. His left forearm was hidden by a comically oversized blaster, and a chic looking logo adorned his right pectoral. "Or we'll open fire!"

"We just want Frieza," Goku shouted. "Let us through and nobody has to get hurt!"

Streaks of glittering light tore through the air seconds after he got the last word out and tore through the ship's hull, exploding somewhere in the interior. Fire licked at Goku's back as he surged forward, tearing into the courageous lizard man with a strike to the gut. Spittle flew from the lizard's lips as Goku heaved upward, bringing him over his head and slamming him into the ground on his other side with one smooth swing.

Nail threw himself straight into the line of soldiers who opened fire on the ship, his fists flying and finding purchase in the exposed necks and helmeted faces of Frieza's men. Faux-metal visors and bone gave way beneath every one of the Namekian's brutal strikes, leaving a trail of crumpled bodies to mass in his wake.

Shot after shot peppered down on Goku as he darted around Frieza's men, following a yellow lined path that he figured led out of the landing bay. Judging by the steady flow of men coming at him, he was definitely going the right way!

He slid across the stone and ducked through an incoming soldier's legs, throwing his fist into the poor creature's midsection and groin as he flipped him and continued on his way.

The soldier hadn't the time to land before a massive, armored man with wild red hair came barreling toward him, blowing through several of his own men on the way.

Rivulets of blue flame split off from Goku's wrist as he strode forward to meet his new challenger, grinning wildly. The red-haired man shot forward, knee raised, but Goku slid beneath him and spun, leveling his hand at the trooper's exposed back.

A bolt of white hot ki flickered from his fingertips and exploded into a cloud of smoke against the fighter's back, while Goku's lips twitched upward into a smirk.

A groan came from the center of the newly formed cloud seconds later, followed by a brief shout that scattered the smoke.

"Hohoho! Not bad, string bean! But you're gonna have to do better than that," the man said, voice laden with menace. "If you wanna beat Recoome, you're gonna have to do a _lot_ better than that!"

Recoome closed the gap between them in an instant, his fists cocked and ready. Goku deftly stepped inward before the huge man could wind up for a strike and buried his fist deep in the warrior's sternum. Recoome stumbled back, swinging his big, clumsy hands at Goku's head. Weaving between each strike, the Saiyan pursued his foe backward, sending blow after blow into Recoome's chestplate. Cracks blossomed outward after every strike, spreading until they covered his entire torso.

"Woah, you're fast!"

Goku's fist pulled back just as his enemy regained his balance, but the massive man's gloved hand was already reaching out for his wrist. He gasped as Recoome grabbed hold and tugged hard, pulling him forward over the stonework and back toward the ship.

With a massive grunt, Recoome slung him into the air and stepped forward. Ki crackled around his lips and massed in his throat, only to be unleashed with a deafening roar milliseconds later.

"Recoome Eraser Gun!"

A gargantuan, bristling wave of light raced through the open air toward him, its head easily twice the size of Raditz's space pod. Goku braced himself and smacked it aside with his left hand, sending it careening into a row of ships off in the distance. The sound of explosions overwhelmed the landing bay, coupled with the scent of burning metal and death. Recoome, back on the ground, laughed with excitement.

In the distance, sirens wailed.

* * *

"Whattaya mean ya can't find Burter?"

"We think he's engaging the intruders, Lieutenant Jeice."

"Bloody right he is," Jeice replied, sarcastically muttering. He tapped the side of his scouter impatiently, glancing down at the board in front of him. "That bastard was s'posed to be here for Space Scrabble at twenty-two hundred sharp. Not twenty-two fifteen, not twenty-two oh-five. Ya better tell him to get his ass back here so I can beat it."

"Sir, you might want to check security feed six on your scouter. We're uploading a live feed of the battle there."

Jeice tutted and slowly navigated to the streaming function on his scouter to find feed six.

Streamers of smoke and flame rose into the sky, which really shouldn't have been visible from landing bay eight. Bursts of light darted in and out, too fast for the cameras to capture, accompanied by thunderous booms that shook the camera in and out of focus. He couldn't feel any of the disturbance from the apartment he shared with Burter, but he could hear a faint popping sound in his other ear. He'd assumed it was something a bit less pressing, though.

"By fuck, Kurak," Jeice said. "Ya didn't say it was this bad, mate. Who's already down there?"

"Recoome. Burter's status says he's on his way, and should be there any second—"

As if on cue, a blue comet went streaking through the flames and into battle. Jeice couldn't make out his movements on the feed, but he appeared to be assisting Recoome… who, if the snapshots were right, was getting his ass kicked.

"Get a hold of the Captain! I'll be out the door in a jiff."

* * *

Back on the battlefield, Son Goku was having the time of his life. Two warriors were coming at him from both sides, moving at speeds that would've turned them invisible a year ago. Thus far, they hadn't landed any good hits, but they were more than capable of taking a few themselves.

Recoome, the big, dumb one, was now armorless. The black undersuit to his armor was in tatters, and he was missing a few teeth. Burter, the fast, blue one, was doing a bit better… but his left pauldron was missing, and he'd received a few fresh cuts since his arrival on the scene.

"You can still surrender," Goku suggested, stepping forward. Burter was still racing through the air around him, leaving behind blue afterimages that obscured his presence. Meanwhile, Recoome waited for him just up ahead, his fists clenched and his eyes full of a wild intensity. "Take me to Frieza and this can all stop."

"Yeah, right! You'll never get to Lord Frieza!"

Burter appeared on his left side and Goku struck before he got the chance, spinning in place and unleashing a blast of potent, white ki that sent him flying. Recoome came flying at him from behind, but Goku quickly stepped to the side and slammed his elbow straight into the poor guy's nose. Stuck in the air by the force of the blow, Recoome recoiled, only to be laid into by the unrelenting Saiyan he'd come in to attack.

Goku unloaded with a rapid fire barrage of punches; each stroke found purchase in Recoome's chest and stomach, leaving heavy dents that cracked ribs and bone. The intensity of his assault drove the behemoth back across the stone — and then to his knees.

Before Goku could deliver the finishing blow, Burter came flying back in from behind. Goku frowned as his opponent locked his arms up, using his height and the element of surprise to his advantage.

"You'll never break my grip! Don't even try it! Recoome, get up and put an end to this guy!"

Goku struggled to free himself from Burter's grip as Recoome staggered to his feet, one hand rubbing one of the many bruises that hadn't yet formed on his stomach.

"This one's a tough guy," he groaned. A thin speckling of blood trailed from his bottom lip. "What're you here for, tough guy?"

"I already told you," Goku said, steel edging its way into his voice. "I want to see Frieza. If you don't let me through, I'm gonna have to get serious."

Burter laughed and his snakelike eyes narrowed.

"Don't make me laugh, buddy. We could do this all day!"

"Yeah," Recoome said, still clutching his stomach. "We could do this all—"

Two beams of violet light cut through the air over Burter's shoulder and slammed into Recoome's chest, piercing through his sternum and poking two holes in the stone behind him. The titan stumbled back, eyes wide, and fell.

"What?!"

Burter turned his head — and his grip slackened. Goku flipped him hard over his shoulder and slammed him into the rock, forging a wide crater in the floor.

"You could've freed yourself," Nail said, touching down beside the wildly grinning Goku.

"Yeah," Goku replied. "I needed a good warmup and these guys were doing a good job! What can I say?"

"We'd better get going, before more of these guys show up."

"Heh, that's right," Burter cut in, slowly rolling over onto his hands and knees. "You're smart to think there's more of us. We're only two members of the Ginyu Force, Frieza's Elite Squad, and once the rest of us get here, we're going to—"

Nail's eyes lit up once again, this time burning two holes into Burter's skull. He collapsed instantly, making the crater his grave.

"Monologues always got on my nerves too," Goku said, nervously scratching the back of his head. "All this killing makes me uncomfortable, though."

"That's probably why I'm the one doing most of it."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. Let's get a move on, bud. We've still got a whole planet to cover."

* * *

 _A/N: Hey there guys. I'll be working on this little jaunt in between chapters of AHC (which you can read by checking my profile). This one won't be anywhere near as long, but it'll be a lot faster paced with pretty quick resolutions and a lot of action._

 _To clarify on what exactly "this" is, it's a venture into the "what-if" concept that I love so much. What if Krillin hadn't heard Goku in time, and had ended up killing Vegeta on Earth? Without Vegeta, the dragon ball hunt goes very differently..._

 _In case you're wondering why this sounds familiar, and why you might recognize certain images, don't worry! You're not crazy. I drew a lot of inspiration from the Universe 8 Specials of Dragonball Multiverse. For a little while, I was a novelization translator there, so I obviously love it a bunch. In case you want to see bits and pieces of this in image form, consider checking DBM Chapters 56 & 57 out._

 _As I already said, this piece won't be anywhere near as long as AHC. I've written the first third of it out already, and it likely won't pass 20,000 words. I'll be delivering this story in four parts, which will be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. The next chapter will be coming on Wednesday, April 5th. Be on the lookout for it._

 _Feel free to ask questions in the reviews. I'll try to answer as many as I can. If you like what you're reading, feel free to follow me or check out my other ongoing fic, A Harbinger's Call._


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